Quote:
Originally Posted by Liviu_5
It all depends on the details; what content is out there, how can I access it and how much it costs.
I do not see such a program viable without government (or a foundation) paying at least partly for it, since I do not see it viable at more than 15$ per user a month, maybe 20$ at a stretch, and that most likely will not generate enough revenue
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I truly hope the govt. doesn't get involved in something like this. A friend of mine is an academic researcher, and his institution has many Ph. D.'s who receive govt. (mainly NIH) grants. The institution is now under federal oversight because a number of those researchers (my friend was not one of them) were throwing big parties with grant money and using it to pay for limousine rides to and from work. That translates to these bozos living high off my tax dollar, and I don't like it, and involving the govt. in a scheme like this is just asking for corruption and scandal. Maybe a tax credit, nothing more for a program like this.
Few people (I am one of them <G>, and probably so are many active members of this site) spend anywhere near 2K per year on books. Students at University might be an exception, and e-books could save lots of money there, but the textbook publishers are entrenched and making good money- will take something like a revolution to change that market.
Boycotts seem to have worked in other markets- selective boycotts might work here to get the message to publishers that e-book readers don't like overpriced goods. Ridiculous when I see ebooks priced several dollars more than the same newly published paper books at bookstores.
Anyways, my idea for gently introducing publishers to the ebook market is use of backlists. Publishers have tens of thousands of good books on their backlists that are not in print and hence generating no income- start publishing these as ebooks at reasonable prices ($4 or $5). Genre markets like SF might do very well. So might books that were good but not very big sellers. The reason that ebooks have not "taken off" is publisher greed and lack of vision.